Speaker
Description
Wetlands are vital ecosystems, supporting 40% of global biodiversity while providing essential services such as flood regulation, carbon storage, and water purification. Despite their significance, wetlands rank among the most endangered habitats worldwide. Over the past 50 years, more than 35% have been lost due to urbanization, agricultural intensification, and pollution. In Europe, nearly half of all wetlands have disappeared since the 20th century, with the Mediterranean region facing particularly acute threats. These challenges are exacerbated by the intensification of agriculture and inadequate water management, intertwining ecological and governance concerns that demand innovative and collaborative solutions.
Wetland Contracts have emerged as effective tools for governing wetland areas. Although they are formally recognized only in France, Belgium, and Italy, Wetland Contracts provide a structured yet flexible framework for stakeholders, including landowners, local governments, and private organizations, to negotiate shared goals for wetland preservation and sustainable use. They exemplify bottom-up governance by aligning biodiversity conservation with sustainable practices such as eco-tourism and agriculture.
The WE GO COOP project adopts a dual-level approach to strengthen and expand the use of Wetland Contracts. This strategy combines upscaling the tool through the creation of a Community of Practice (CoP) at the Mediterranean level and downscaling it to new contexts, including Croatia, Portugal, Albania, and regions in the South and Middle East Mediterranean. Simultaneously, the project aims to reinforce the tool in countries where it has already been tested, such as Italy, Greece, and Spain. This transnational cooperation allows WE GO COOP to address wetland challenges at scale while ensuring the adaptability of its governance models to diverse local contexts.
At the core of the project’s upscaling efforts is the establishment of a Community of Practice (CoP), a transnational network of policymakers, researchers, practitioners, and local communities. The CoP fosters dialogue, knowledge exchange, and the dissemination of best practices, supporting the development and implementation of participatory governance tools like Wetland Contracts. It represents a collaborative space where stakeholders can bridge gaps between scientific research, policy frameworks, and community action, facilitating multi-level and multi-stakeholder collaboration.
One of the project’s milestones was the first thematic seminar, “Framing the Community of Practice,” held in Rome. This event provided a platform for stakeholders to discuss shared challenges, define governance objectives, and explore strategies for enhancing wetland management. The seminar highlighted the critical need for tools that enable collaboration across sectors and levels of governance, while integrating diverse perspectives into decision-making processes.
A key deliverable of the project is the development of a virtual collaborative platform designed to support the CoP’s activities. The platform serves as a centralized repository of information and resources on signed Wetland Contracts at the Mediterranean level, together with relevant guidelines and handbooks. It facilitates continuous interaction, capacity-building, and the sharing of knowledge among CoP members, regardless of their geographical location. By integrating these resources into an accessible digital space, the platform enhances the effectiveness, scalability, and transferability of collaborative governance practices.
This work presents the first results of the project and illustrates how the virtual platform functions as a pivotal tool for advancing wetland governance. By enabling the CoP to access, share, and co-create knowledge, the platform plays a central role in addressing the ecological and socio-economic challenges faced by wetlands in the Mediterranean and beyond.
References
Bastiani, M., 2011. Contratti di Fiume. Pianificazione Strategica e Partecipata Di Bacini Idrografici. Palermo: Dario Flaccovio Edizioni.
D’Ascanio, R., Muccitelli, S., Pozzi, C. & Palazzo, A.L., 2022. The Marine Protected Area Contract as a collaborative governance tool: The Lazio region case study. In Book of Proceedings AESOP Annual Congress “Space for Specie: redefining spatial justice”, Track Governance, pp. 51-57. ISBN 978-9916-4-1319-7.
Ernoul, L., Vera, P., Gusmaroli, G., Muccitelli, S., Pozzi, C., Magaudda, S., Polajnar Horvat, K., Smrekar, A., Satta, A. & Monti, F., 2021. Use of Voluntary environmental contracts for wetland governance in the European Mediterranean region. Marine and Freshwater Research, 73(11), pp.1166–1173.
Muccitelli, S., Pozzi, C., D’Ascanio, R. & Magaudda, S., 2023. Environmental contract: A collaborative tool to improve the multilevel governance of European MPAs. Sustainability, 15(8174)
Palazzo, A.L., Muccitelli, S., D’Ascanio, R., Pozzi, C. & Magaudda, S., (eds.), 2021. Environmental Contracts in Marine Protected Areas: methodology and pilot cases from TUNE UP. leNote di U3, n. 3. ISSN 1973-9702 2019-2020
Scaduto, M.L., 2016. River contracts and integrated water management in Europe (Vol. 4). Dordrecht: Springer.
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